November 9th, 2012 - Kyprios & Transit

w/ The Chaperones • Doors at 8pm • $10 • 19+

The classic definition of the term MC is one that has the ability to grip a mic and control the crowd, and Kyprios has more than earned this title. He is a commanding presence on stage – able to hold the crowd in silent rapture as he drops an introspective piece that draws heavily from spoken word, only to suddenly flip it and incite a sea of thrusting hands with a rapid fire set of punchline-laden lyrical flows. Able to deliver a seamless blend of rapping, singing and harmonizing, the North Vancouver, BC native’s larynx is a potent stash of varied lyrical weapons.

On a roadtrip to New York City with Prevail from Swollen Members, the aspiring MC/actor/poet was compelled to lengthen his stay in hip hop’s Mecca. Studying theatre at HB Studios in Greenwich Village, hitting monthly rap battles anywhere in NYC and participating in poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe, the young artist was learning amongst the most reputed craftsman and developing his trade amongst them. Winning a poetry slam with a controversial spoken word piece Hate Kyprios headed back to his hometown of North Vancouver to transfer his education into practice. Kyprios released the independent EP Mic Tease that would be the catalyst to get him performing numerous club shows and begin to host a weekly open mic poetry series dubbed Come With It in Vancouver.

During this period, Kyprios was also a founding member of the two time Juno-nominated Sweatshop Union. While working within the group, Kyp maintained his solo identity and continued to write and record his own material. This output included three tracks featured on the Local 604 album, which was released by BattleAxe Records. BattleAxe also selected Kyp’s song Master for inclusion on their Lyrics Of Fury compilation.

Kyprios’ solo work caught the attention of Sony Music Canada when he sent the company a package containing some tracks and a video of the slam winning, spoken word piece Hate. Kyp signed with the label and began a tumultuous period trying to do the impossible: make commercially viable underground music satisfying a record label and his core fans. He also offered outside help on Sweatshop Union’s juno nominated Natural Progression from Toronto at this time. His solo effort resulted in the two time, Juno nominated Say Something featuring production from Saukrates (Kardinal Offishall, Method Man), Billy Mann (Pink, Kelly Rowland), Rob The Viking (Swollen Members) and good friend Tawgs (Lights, K’Naan). With the unfortunate timing of the industry’s changing climate, Sony Canada was merged into BMG and Kyprios’ solo record was shelved but his career was not.

Kyprios moved back to Vancouver, re-joined Sweatshop Union to begin a rigorous touring schedule and put out the Juno nominated United We Fall and the critically acclaimed Water Street albums. He recently released a new solo offering entitled 12:12 which propelled him into a radio competition for $100,500 in Vancouver, through the PEAK radio station called the PEAK Performance Project. Kyprios eventually went on to win this prestigious competition and recognizes this experience as the most informative/beneficial of his career.

Transit is an indie hip hop artist who moved to Calgary from Victoria a few years ago to pursue an education and to take his music to the next level in the rapidly expanding indie community of Calgary. Since arriving in Calgary, Transit has wasted no time making himself a household name. His hit songs "Not For Clubs" and “Power Outage” have been taking the Internet by storm and has been featured on Local Rock station X92.9.

In the short amount of time Transit has spent on the Calgary scene he has created a movement of people who are sick of Calgary being labelled as strictly a "Country town." "My fan base consists primarily of kids who don't usually listen to rap. We usually perform at indie shows because those kids are still thirsty for real music, thirsty for substance. There's a subculture in Calgary emerging that really wants to build up the scene here, and I feel as though the scene is more alive here than ever. We're trying to change the way people view Hip Hop, we're trying to put Calgary on the map for that."

Transit recently released his fifth album (first solo album) titled "Insufficient Funds" which sold over 800 copies in it's opening week. Despite being in University, Transit has successfully toured for over six weeks of the last year. The recent new addition of DJ CrossWalk for live support has truly taken Transit's live performance to a new level. Watch out for them on their Cross-Canada tour this summer.